Best seat in the house

[iiicream]

As an evaluator in our local association, I had the best seat in the house last night at a GV contest. I was seated right behind some parents from the visiting team. Everytime a call went against them they would moan and groan. A ball went out of bounds on the far side of the court and according to the parents the official missed the call. One of the dads turned to me and said, "How can he miss that call?" I said, "I'm not sure but we sure did a good look at it from way over here, didn't we?"

Later in the game a girl from the home team clearly blocked a shot---a foul was called. The dad again turned to look at me. I said, "You're even now."

Gotta love the parents. And to think all those years I had my stripes on I was missing all that fun in the stands.

[Raymond]

Did they know you were evaluating?

[iiicream]

They had no clue at first, but I think they figured out I was associated with the officials.

[grunewar]

Last year my son was playing on the HS Fresh Team. Everyone on his team and the home side knows I'm a ref as I've coached or reffed many of them over the yrs.

I would usually watch his games from way up in the bleachers away from everyone.

Unfortunately, when there was a weird play or a contentious call, many of the parents would turn around and look at me way up in the stands to see what I thought. I tried to remain calm with an unchanging expression the entire time. It was funny. What'd they think I was gonna do - yell? Scream? Change the call? Make a face?

[Ignats75]

My daughter is a senior co-captain of her varsity team. I really dislike going to the game because one of three things (or all three) seems to always happen.

1) Controversial call. Every head in the stands turns around and stares at me. What? I didn't make that call! Turn around.

2) Someone sitting near me makes some dumbass comment such as yelling for three seconds and the ball is still in the backcourt or yells for "over the Back." And I have to fight the urge to defend the referees.

Last Saturday, had a game at a wealthy suburban High School where all the home team players drove themselves to school in their own beamers. (BMW's for you guys from Michigan. ) game is flucuating between 9-13 points most of the way (home team winning). Then my daughter's team puts a nice little run together to close it to 3 with about 3:00 left in the game. Visiting girl drives to the lane and as she goes past the off-guard the defender reaches across and tries to steal and knocks the girl clearly off her stride. No-Brainer. TWEEET! Foul. 1+1. Home team Dad in the stands yells "call it both ways". I look up at the scoreboard. Team Fouls are 8 to 8. A team mate of my daughter's Dad asked me sarcastically loud enough for this guy to hear, "Do you guys try to balance the calls?" I turned around and in a really authoritative voice so the nimrod behind us could hear. "Don't you know what we do in the locker room pregame? We decide which team we are going to favor for the night."

3) Get pissed off when I see referees giving sub-standard effort. Or they don't know the rules. I never question calls, as I understand their angle may show something different than what I see from the stands. BUt I really get hacked off when I see a referee who doesn't care. It offends me personally as I think it reflects poorly on us all.

So, other than watching JuJuBee play, its a very frustrating experience most of the time.